Cancun, Part 2

Well, a month later and I'm finally getting around to posting the rest of my Cancun trip. It's been a bit strange for me lately - the day after my return from Cancun I had the unfortunate experience of being laid off from my job. I'm still processing some feelings about that, but on the whole I'm excited to be able to take a different road in life. My job at NSP was a great one, but as my mom said as her first response to the news, that job wasn't the sum total of who I am. What a wise woman. And now I can say in hindsight that there was a lot of stress - both the stress inherent in any event planning job, and also stress due to political reasons in that particular job, that I will be very happy to leave behind. I have the good fortune - due to a severance package and also my own financial decisions - to have the luxury of a bit of time to find the right job. And to spend some time with my darling grandkids. When I told Kaiya that I didn't have my job anymore, she just clapped her hands and shouted "Yay!" Kind of puts things into perspective. Mom's right - there's more to life than your job.

So, back to Cancun ...

One day, we had the option of going to the Xcarret Park, or to the Xplor Park. Since I had already been to Xcarret, I chose Xplor. What a fun place!! The main activities are 4-wheel drives, zip lines, and an underground pool system that you can swim in and/or paddle a raft in. Not knowing what to expect, it didn't seem that there would be enough to keep you busy for a whole day, but in the end we only had time to do about half of everything available!

This is the heart of the property - literally. It functions as a central meeting place. Not to worry if you can't see it ... you can hear the heart pulse sound.

I thought the zip line would be just that - a zip line. Instead it was a whole series of lines, and took more than an hour to go through. You would climb to the top of one tower, zip down to another tower, climb to the top of that one, zip down again, etc., etc. I think there were close to a dozen different towers.

Here's the 4-wheel drive experience, with my new friend and driver extraordinaire, Ed. Again, it wasn't a simple short drive, but a 3 to 4 mile route that went through water, over very dicey bridges (I was driving for that one - freaked me out a bit), into caves, etc.

We also did the rafts through the underground caves. Not gonna post my pictures here - not my most flattering shots. But here's a generic shot. It was beautiful, and very serene (except when I couldn't make my raft obey).

If you're ever in the area, I'd say a stop at Xplor is well worth it. They also provide a surprisingly good buffet lunch in the price, plus all the beverages you could want (nothing alcoholic though, for probably very good reasons!). Just be sure to give yourself a whole day for it. They also have this ingenious photo system. You have to wear the gorgeous orange helmet everywhere in the park, but in it is a sensor. There are numerous points throughout the park where you pass by cameras. At the end, they are able to pull up all the shots with you in it, which is totally cool. I don't usually go for the photo package thing, but we all went in together so it was pretty reasonable. Note to self: if you ever open a public amusement thing, be sure to put this system in it.